


Cold Shoulders Need Warmed

by Ononymous



Series: Christmas 2018 Stories and Requests [6]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Christmas, Gen, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 16:26:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17227412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ononymous/pseuds/Ononymous
Summary: After a frosty end to a brief Christmas get away, Undyne and Alphys unexpectedly find themselves with a lot of time to talk about it.





	Cold Shoulders Need Warmed

**Author's Note:**

> Original request: Alphys and Undyne having relationship problems while trying to make it to Asgore's place for his Christmas get-together

From a bird's eye view, the car was a murky green dot progressing along a plain white field. It was making good time. Too much good time, given the conditions. Mother Nature tried to remind the driver with another gust of wind and flurry of snowflakes to rock the car, but to no avail. Therefore it was up to the passenger to try.

"Undyne, are y-you sure it's okay to g-go this fast?"

"You equipped the snow chains, right?"

"Well yeah, b-but-"

"Then it's fine."

The exchange was only slightly more thawed than the weather outside the car, and quickly gave way to the voices on the radio, cutting in and out as the snow played havoc with reception. The incomplete yammering of disjointed sentences served as an apt reconstruction of the thoughts racing through both of their heads.

"I'm just s-saying," blurted out Alphys, "the weather wasn't nearly as b-bad on the way to the hotel..."

"I ain't scared by something a gaggle of Ice Caps could whip up on a dare. I was the best driver in the Underground, you know."

"Th-that was on a five hundred yard single lane road next t-to the core in a c-car with three functioning gears that Mettaton r-ran as an amusement ride, Undyne. The conditions-"

"Don't matter."

Alphys adjusted her second jumper. "Well can w-we at least talk about it a-and-"

The engine revved as Undyne inflicted more cruelty on the abused accelerator. "I just wanna focus on getting us to Asgore's place for his party. Then we can talk about it."

"But I... I f-feel..."

"Oh, do you now?".

The contextless voices from the radio resumed control of the conversation, and while not providing much sense had a greater degree of emotional control. The gentle reminders of caution from the outside world grew less gentle.

"Hey buddy," snapped Undyne, "pretty sure we're a four-lane in a few miles, couldn't ya wait?"

The tanker truck which had chosen this moment to drive even more recklessly than Undyne and overtake them clearly could not wait.

"Ugh, I get it if they're on their own, but when their acts affect others-"

"Th-then could you please slow down?!"

"Look, I-"

A deafening honk cut across the dispute. The truck had neglected to assume another car may be approaching from the other direction, and one was now doing so just as it had cleared Undyne's car, forcing it to pull in with inches to spare.

" **SUNUVA-** "

Undyne slammed on the brakes and instinctively turned to give herself distance from the truck. The combined acts sent the car spinning, and her attempts to straighten out bore no fruit. All she could do was flatten the pedal and try to blot out Alphys' yelling, while losing all sense of orientation about which direction she had been going.

Then, stillness.

Both monsters looked around. They had spun out and were clear of the road, the careless truck rapidly swallowed up by the blizzard behind them, and they were inches in front of a snow-laden tree, but mercifully had avoided colliding with it. The radio blared only static, their current position not conducive for getting a signal through.

" _Ngah!_ Goddamned inconsiderate jackass piece of-" Undyne was too angry to finish that line of thought. "You okay?" She added thoughtlessly.

"Y-yeah."

"Okay," she said, businesslike. "I'm gonna try and back up onto the road." Shifting into reverse, she indeed attempted this, while Alphys fiddled with the radio as a coping mechanism. There was a crunching noise from outside while the car failed to move. "Even with the chains? Okay, I'm gonna get out and push, can you take the wheel-?"

A loud thump accompanied a large clump of snow choosing that moment to fall from the branches and onto the bonnet of the car. Alphys, nerves already frayed, gave a startled squeak, and a harsh _BZZT_ filled the air. The radio died, as did the car engine, and an acrid smell floated up from the dashboard to the nostrils of both occupants. Undyne looked from the unwelcome snow to the now-scorched looking radio Alphys was still touching, the last spark of magical electricity fleeing the scene of the crime.

"Just." A calm tone from Undyne never sounded more dangerous. "Perfect."

" _I'msosorryIgotscaredlemmejustgooutsideandseeifIcanfixthebattery-_ " She'd already opened the car door and tried to scramble outside, but Undyne pulled her back by her tail and closed it again.

"Forget it, it's way too exposed out there. You'd shut down in minutes. Pretty sure the battery's fried anyway, going by that smell. Thanks for that, by the by."

Alphys' mouth continued moving, but no sound accompanied it. Undyne ignored her, instead reaching for her phone.

"One bar." She tried making a call. "Keeps cutting out. Texts are bouncing. And I can't get the internet. Dammit! It could be hours before anyone stops to help." To underline her point, a car passed them with nary a notice.

"L-l-let me try something-"

"Oh, like you did with the radio?"

" ** _PLEASE!_** "

The force of Alphys' plea kept Undyne at bay, so she watched her passenger fiddle with her own phone.

"...finally, it z-zoomed in..." she took a scrap of paper and a pen from the glove compartment and scribbled something. "...two miles past... Roufides turn... southbound..." And back to the phone. "...override HTU-7's D-Box B-Beta... invoke subroutine... there!" The paper disappeared.

"So what was that?"

"Th-the signal was strong enough for the maps app to home in on u-us, eventually. I w-wrote a note about where we are, and h-hacked into the dimensional storage on Frisk's ph-phone and stored it there. That system d-doesn't rely on the cellular network. Hopefully, th-they'll see it soon and they'll come get us."

"And if they're already at the party and they're not paying attention?"

"They'll get it eventually. I h-hope. Better than nothing, anyway."

"Right, okay." The disinterested pronouncement was followed by a silence colder than outside. An already enfeebled sun was losing its strength while both occupants spent the longest time looking all around them. Except at each other.

"I'm sorry, Undyne," came the attempted icebreaker.

"Hmm," she grunted.

"I'm s-serious!"

Undyne looked at her for the first time since the accidental sabotage. "For which one? Stranding us here or what you said?"

"B-both! But I didn't know-"

"Yeah, well m-maybe you should have!"

"Was that a s-stutter?"

She turned away again. "What do you want? It's cold now!"

"Y-you know what I want."

"Eh." Her efforts at suppressing shivers momentarily faltered. "I don't w-wanna talk about it."

"Well what else sh-should we do, Undyne? Sit in silence until w-we fall asleep from the cold?"

Undyne shrugged. "Might be more considerate to my f-feelings."

"Okay, I said I was sorry!" Indignation was a good bolster to Alphys' own attempts at ignoring the cold. And her elocution. "I just saw that human family and said it would be nice to start one of our own! How was I supposed to know you didn't feel ready?"

"I won't f-feel ready," shivered Undyne. "I've n-no plans for kids."

"If you're worried about bearing them, um, I could always host-"

"You think that's my beef with this? God, I thought you knew me even a little bit, Alphys. I don't want kids, period!"

"Okay, okay! Y-you just had to say that at the hotel! Why leap down my th-throat at the very idea?"

"...you wouldn't get it."

"Well that's a self-fulfilling prophecy," snapped Alphys, "how c-can I understand if you don't t-tell me?"

Undyne didn't answer. Alphys wanted to press on, but figured she would be pushed away, perhaps physically, so her raised hackles were overruled in favour of patience. A few empty attempts at small talk got no response either, so instead she had to observe the slow march of the snow up the windscreen. The encroaching darkness didn't engender the kind of fear a human in the same situation may have felt, both monsters were more than used to it. It wasn't as dark as they expected anyway, the snow doing an admirable job of reflecting as much of the dying light as possible.

"You th-think they got your message?"

"I d-don't k-know. We're still p-pretty far out from t-town. Would take a while for them to g-get here."

"Yeah..."

Two more cars had selfishly passed them by, easier to spot with their headlights, the sun having finally called it quits. Alphys drummed her claws on the dashboard for something to do, something to focus on to resist her body telling her to just shut down. She wasn't going at it very long before wondering why Undyne hadn't scolded her for the noise, and looked over to her.

"Undyne?!" Her head was limp. Alphys seized her shoulder. "Don't f-fall asleep!"

"Unh?"

"If we fall asleep, we'll j-j-just get colder and c-colder and... try and focus on something!"

"...nuthin' t'think 'bout..."

Alphys' eyes darted from one thing to another as her worry was her own bolster against the cold. The engineer part of her brain took this very observation and ran with it. Less intellect, more emotion.

"W-w-w-w-why don't you want kids?!"

"Hmm? Huh?!" The gauntlet had given her enough spite to ignore the cold. Her razor sharp teeth shifted into a snarl. "If it isn't obvious to you, then w-why should I-"

"Th-this isn't anime! We can't just sit around w-waiting for a dramatic moment to c-clear up a m-misunderstanding!" The irony of their current predicament was forbidden from taking the floor. "If th-this is gonna work, w-we have to communicate."

"Well maybe I d-don't want it to work anymore."

In a vacuum these words might have literally torn Alphys' soul in two, but she was too used to Undyne's streak of stubborn pride to fall for the bluff. "Y-you threw me in a trash c-can and then sent me j-jogging with Papyrus. You'd n-n-never give up on something that easily."

" _NnnnnnnnnnnGAH!_ " The primary purpose of the conversation had succeeded, as Undyne was now fully awake. And mad. "Okay, you're right! I just... probing these feelings are h-hard. I d-don't like it."

"Unnie," she risked. It paid off, and she placed a hand on Undyne's. "This isn't ab-about kids anymore. I just w-wanna know why. To understand you b-better. I'll r-respect your decision, I p-promise."

For a moment Undyne's eye looked resolutely at the small part of her door window not covered by snow. It was a good sign she didn't rebuff Alphys' hand.

"...Asgore."

"H-huh?"

"Alphys, what would y-you say his default emotional state is?"

Alphys hadn't expected this question, but that alone kept her engaged. "W-well, he's usually cheerful, r-right?"

"Right," nodded Undyne, "that's what most m-monsters see. But when you train with him... it g-gets intense sometimes, you know? The mask s-slips, an' he gets excited or overjoyed when y-you do something right, or even just have tea or spend time with him."

"Oh, well th-that makes sense, I guess." Alphys brain dropped the next piece of the puzzle. "Does th-that mean he ever felt... sad?"

"'Sad' is an understatement. No idea what triggered it, n-nothing I ever did, far as I know, b-but he felt comfortable expressing it round me. How he m-missed his family and stuff. Like it all just happened y-yesterday. He was in agony."

"Oh... I g-guess that makes sense too."

"Yeah. And I got to thinking, if losing your kid does that to you? I had n-no time for that. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty d-dumb for a kid to decide that, and I wouldn't hold myself to it. But you know what? H-hooking up with you confirmed that idea for me."

"M-m-me?"

Undyne wore the first smile she had since leaving the hotel. "Yeah."

"B-but you started dating me. What if we g-got married - _andI'mnotproposingrightnowpleasedon'tthinkthat_ \- and then I d-d-d-d-dusted even before we had a child? Wouldn't th-that hurt too?"

"Yeah," she said, "but I'm not an idiot. All r-relationships have that risk. You'd go crazy if you held everyone at arm's l-length to avoid it."

"B-but then why would you not w-want a child?"

"Because... because if the worst happened, you'd have to feel that pain too. And that'd make my pain twice as awful."

The words lanced Alphys' heart, filling her with something approximating warmth for the first time in hours.

"Unnie... I'm sorry. I d-didn't know..."

Undyne grinned. "No duh, I was bein' stubborn and not telling you!"

"I do think it's an a-arbitrary distinction, though. Taking a risk on someone l-like me is no different than t-taking a risk on a child."

The grin faded slightly. "Not sure I agree. B-but we can talk more about it when we get home, I guess."

"I l-look forward to that. If we g-get home."

"No half-empty talk! You wanna stay warm, c'mere!"

Alphys did not obey, she was grabbed, and somehow squeezed between Undyne's thin frame and the steering wheel, with no sense of discomfort, still in the grip of deceptively strong blue arms. Their dwindling body warmth was shared and rekindled by the intimacy.

"Oh... th-this is nice, Unnie."

"It'll do in a pinch, babe."

They nuzzled close, the focus shielding the cold from them, the moonlight pouring in from the clear windscreen... which didn't seem right.

"Hey Alph, where'd the snow go?"

The driver's door opening answered their question. "Undyne! Alphys!"

Undyne was relieved of her package by a set of furry hands. A slightly larger pair pulled her from the car onto bone dry grass, and she found herself in a bear hug, filled with heat from nowhere. She knew it well.

"Asgore!" she barked, as if nothing was amiss. "Took ya long enough!" She looked over to Alphys, getting similar warming treatment from Toriel. A stumpy shadow stood slightly apart from the four of them.

"Frisk got your message a few moments ago," said Asgore, relieved, "we're so sorry."

"You should be for butting in on that, we were just getting comfortable!"

Asgore chuckled at the rebuke. "There is not much we can do for the car tonight. We'll take your things with us and make sure you two warm up. Then return with a mechanic in the morning."

"yeah," said the shadow, "' _snow_ problem to get home fast. i know a shortcut."

Sans opened the trunk and started pulling out bags while the King and Queen continued to warm the passengers up. Undyne found herself rocked slightly by Asgore, as though to reassure her everything was fine, while Toriel remained still as she warmed Alphys. As demeaning as it could have felt, Undyne found it comforting. _Wouldn't be the worst thing to do this with a kid_ , she mused. _Or to do a lot of the thing you had to do to get a kid in the first place..._

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think, and thanks for reading!


End file.
